In recent years, various corporations have been issuing various kinds of cards, such as credit cards, membership cards, point cards, debit cards, electronic-money cards, and cash cards. When these cards are to be issued, identification information for identifying a customer (user) from other customers is assigned, the identification information is displayed visually on the card according to the type of card, or the identification information is electronically or magnetically recorded on the card according to the type of card.
When receiving services, the customer shows a corresponding card or causes a terminal provided with a card reader to read a corresponding card, thereby receiving desired services. Since different cards are issued by each corporation to each user (customer), there are cases in which one person owns several to a little over 10 cards.
Furthermore, in recent years, a communication environment via a network such as the Internet has been growing remarkably, and so corporations that issue the above-described cards in order to provide various services, and other corporations have come to provide information provision, sales of goods, and other services. Each corporation identifies a customer in such a manner that the above-described identification information or separately assigned identification information is made to be input, for example, when making an access to a Web site managed by the corporation.
Furthermore, in the Internet, etc., in order to facilitate an access to various corporations or in order to obtain various types of information, a portal site is used. The “portal site” is a Web site which is produced for the purpose of being displayed first by the Web browser when connection to the Internet is made. In the portal site., for example, information, such as links to other sites, news, weather, and financial information, is displayed, and there are cases in which the portal site has a search function. Some of these portal sites are formed in such a manner that data items to be displayed and the layout thereof can be customized according to the preference of a user.
However, as described above, since several kinds of cards are issued to one customer by a plurality of corporations, there is a problem in that it is necessary for the customer to separately manage each card, and this is troublesome. From the point of view of decreasing the number of cards to as little as possible, there are cases in which several corporations cooperate with each other and issue joint cards. Although this is effective from the point of view of decreasing the number of cards, only one card merely has functions of several cards, and this is not sufficient.
In the Internet, etc., in a case where services are to be received from various corporations, it is necessary to access a Web site of the corporation in accordance with a link from a portal site or independently and to input the identification information assigned by that Web site. Therefore, there is a problem in that a plurality of items of identification information must be managed and the operation for inputting them is complicated.
Furthermore, in the Internet, etc., in a case where services which are related among corporations are to be received, for example, when, regarding a particular singer, new record information (including the purchase of music recordings) and concert information (including the purchase of tickets) are to be received and when these are provided by different corporations, it is necessary to make accesses separately and to receive the corresponding services. If both or more services can be received at one Web site, this is very convenient.
The present invention has been made in view of such points. An object of the present invention is to be capable of receiving the provision of services by a plurality of corporations by using a single card or a single item of identification information. Another object of the present invention is to be capable of receiving services, which are related to each other, provided by a plurality of corporations with simple operation.